Jarryd Hayne and Marwan Koukash's ideas on league and money need a little tweaking

Jarryd Hayne and Marwan Koukash do not appear, at first glance, to have much in common. But they each believe they have the secret to getting more money into rugby league.

Hayne, the Parramatta, NSW and Australia back, told the Herald in an enlightening interview this week that the NRL should release players from their image rights obligations, which would allow them to build their own brands and find backers without being encumbered by the league’s own sponsorship deals.

Thinking man ... Jarryd Hayne on the attack against Queensland on Wednesday night.

Koukash, the racing millionaire and Salford Red Devils owner, tried vainly once more to have each Super League club permitted to sign a marquee player outside the salary cap.

Hayne believes if players could own and develop their brands they would be better behaved and the game as a whole could sweep up corporate income that it is currently missing.

Koukash believes a marquee player system would prevent players going to rugby union and engender interest in Super League by attracting NRL stars.

Both of them have considerable support. Koukash had counted heads before a meeting of clubs on Monday and believed he would be successful with the measure – which has support from the game’s hierarchy. He was mistaken.

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Hayne’s well-presented and throughtful comments have been well received by just about everyone who read them.

It seems to Discord that Hayne’s idea of players becoming brands unto themselves is a great one – as long as it does not work against the salary cap and cause an unhealthy concentration of a players at a few clubs.

You'll notice Johnathan Thurston is an amiable and visible media performer these days. He has said he is interested in a career in that area after retirement. But he does not appear on any of the regular TV panel programmes regularly.

That's because he lives in Townsville.

If Nike or Reebok were able to pay Thurston any amount of money to do anything, they could reasonably ask him to reside in a capital city where he could do more to promote their brands. That would work against the salary cap, obviously.

The Sydney Roosters could reasonably be accepted to be "better connected" at corporate level than the Canberra Raiders. Fans could be forgiven for thinking that networking through the former could do a better job of finding someone a free-market endorsement than at the latter.

Again, this would work against the salary cap. Obviously there are markets in the US much bigger than others but Canberra, Townsville, Newcastle and Wollongong are very small indeed and the salary cap helps hold up the dam wall that is always drawing their players to bigger cities.

These are not reasons why Hayne is wrong, simply factors to consider when ruminating over his ideas.

Koukash would like no salary cap at all, of course. And if there is one, he wants to be able to exceed it. His argument is, in some ways, more compelling than Hayne's because Super League is losing players and the salary cap is static at roughly half that at the NRL.

One of his ideas is to have a "golden ticket" for every club in the competition, which he would buy off clubs, thereby compensating them for not being able to afford a marquee player.

The problem is that currently in Super League, there are not enough clubs which already spend up to the salary cap of £1.8 million ($3.3 million). It is difficult to argue the rich would not get richer if a few franchises were empowered to spend more.

Of course, a marquee player could bring fans to the game and not really affect the competitive balance in a whole league; after all, in any given week, he could be injured.

But Koukash himself has said he might make current player Kevin Locke his marquee player. In other words, the system would just become a ruse for spending more money without adding value to the league at all.

Here's what I think should happen in both cases.

In regard to Hayne's idea, a thorough study needs to be made in regard to releasing players from their image rights obligations. I cannot think of a way that such deals would not work against the salary cap in the manner described above but tha is not to say someone cannot come up with one.

Regarding Super League, journalist Chris Irvine has said the salary cap is going to go up next year by several hundred thousand pounds. I believe there should be bargaining process to set upper and lower limits to spending.

Let’s say the gap is £500,000. Then the cap can only go up to £2 million if the weakest club can guarantee, in writing, it will spend £1.5 million or more.

If the weakest club can spend £1.6 million, then the cap goes up to £2.1 million. This way, the rich get more rope but the poor are not left behind.

So what I'm going to do is drip-feed my responses somewhat. I'll start with five, and eventually get around as many forums as possible where your thoughts appeared – not just on here.

I want to say that one institution which appears to have a bad reputation that is thoroughly undeserved is social media. Even though people disagreed with me stridently, no-one abused me and I learnt so much from everyone’s arguments.

Cathar Trieze convinced me my use of the word "slime" was excessive. What I meant by "slime" was repeated decisions based on self-interest and that new buzzword "short-termism". I should have said that.

OK, onto the first of 242 comments on last week’s column. Sport Is Wrecked said sport was rotten to the core and why raise these issues now? I am not a sports fan, I’m a rugby league fan. I have concerns about where the sport is positioned in the Australian market, how it is viewed, and some ideas on how it can be improved. That’s why.

Enough Is Enough Said pointed to double standards. There is no doubt they are at play constantly but colleague Paul Kent has pointed out that these incidents seem have an impact on the bottom line. The survey accompanying last week’s column showed a large majority of respondents are deterred by bad behaviour.

Bob made a point about Beau Ryan being nude on The Footy Show. I was really surprised to see a number of former rugby league players make this comparison. Do they not know the difference between playful titillation and what Carney did, or pretended to do? I don't profess to be an expert of female sexuality but I know the difference between a bare bum on TV and the Carney photo. Men tend to find any female nudity arousing but I am pretty sure it is not the case in reverse.

Oh Yeah said journalists should not chase "beat-up stories" like the Carney photo. It was shared on social media and he was sacked before a single paper came out. I'm not sure what journalists had to do with it.

Let’s Make Sandwiches says he doesn't know why anyone would care about the opinions of a non-rugby league supporter. I do – vitally. That is what inspired the column.

Now to this week’s Set of Six.

Zythrn Quidgybo makes a key point about referees ruling on tries before going upstairs – for most referees, there is no upstairs. That's why they should make a call in 95 per cent of cases. But if there are instances where they have no idea, why not ask someone who can help?

Chieftain is 100 per cent correct: rugby league has not been banned in Russia. All unregistered sports have simply been warned of their legal obligations.